The crossing of death and truth
by Hydroc
Summary: This takes place right after the events of Persona 4, where Soji and friends find themselves teaming up with the saviors from the world three years ago, the original SEES squad. Will the group finally rid the world of shadows and their threat to mankind?
1. Chapter 1

As Soji stepped off the train, he took a quick look back at the past he had just left behind. The murders that had occured, the discovery of the other world, the fight with Izanami, and the power he had obtained and used, as well as the faces of all of his friends, the times they had shared togehter, their smiles, everything flashed through his mind, and he smiled in nostalgia.

"Soji Seta?" Soji snapped out of his quick daydream. Expecting to see his parents, his gazed instead came across a teenager wearing a huge brown overcoat and glasses, looking at him expectedly. Confused a little, since he knew he did not know the teen, Soji nodded.

"Oh good, i found you." The teen sighed with relief. "I was hoping not to wander around this station for half the afternoon looking for you. That would have been quite the pain in my ass." The young man suddenly extended an arm and grabbed Soji's hand. "Follow me, I don't have much time to explain." The kid started walking away, trying to drag soji along with him, but soji easily shook the guy off, and took a step back in alarm.

The kid sighed. "Look, we really are in a hurry. Don't worry about your folks, they've been told a good cover story. However, i need you to come with me right now." The teen lowered his voice. "It's about your recent...'awakening' lets say." The kid raised his eyebrows expectantly at Soji. Nodding firmly, Soji decided to trust the kid and followed him to a black car. Soji spotted the Kirijo groups logo on the side of the car as he stepped into the back seat with the kid.

"My name is Kwondo Kae by the way." The teen smiled at Soji. "We'll both be seniors this year, so just call me Kae." The boy tapped the driver on the shoulder. "We should go now." he said to the driver.

"I don't go anywhere without direct orders from Mitsuru Kirijo. When she calls and tells me it's time to go, then i'll go." The driver said angrily to Kae, and kae sat back and shrugged. "Oh well. I guess they still don't fully believe me." Kae suddenly looked over at Soji. "Oh, I'm sorry! You have no idea about why we're in a kirijo group car or how i know about what's happened to you." Soji nodded again. "Well don't worry, that'll all be explained." Kae said smiling.

A few minutes past, and then the driver's cell phone rang. He picked it up, nodded, and hung up. Starting the car, the driver ordered the two to fasten their seatbelts and drove out of the parking lot. "We're going to one of the Kirijo's business homes. Thats were you'll meet the people you have to meet." Kae said unexpectedly. Soji looked at him funny. "Let me give you some background that you may not know." Kae cleared his throat. "Around three years ago, the world almost ended." Soji's eyes widened in surprise. "Yes, i was shocked the first time i heard it too. However, just like how you and your friend's recently saved the world, the world was saved back then by a group of high schoolers as well." Kae continued. "They too could summon persona's, and so fight against the shadows, just like you. At the end, the nine persona users confronted a being called Nyx, who for lack of a better term, was death itself. They managed to win, and the world was safe. Sounds a lot like recent events for you, doesn't it?"

Soji sat back and stared at nothing for a few moments. He had just finished saving the world, and yet it seemed like he and his friends had simply repeated the past. Kae simply shook his head. "Don't think long on it, we have a bigger problem on our hands." Soji looked at Kae in surprise. "No, it's nothing as complicated as the destruction of mankind or anything like that." Kae tapped the driver on the shoulder. "I'm going to show him, so don't be scared and drive us off the road." The driver nodded, and turned his rear-view mirror away. Soji looked at Kae in alarm as a sudden black ooze with a huge mouth came from the back of Kae and floated a few inches from him. It wasn't huge, and didn't make very much noise, but Soji knew what it was instantly. "That's right, this is my persona." Kae fixed Soji with a hard stare. "I found i could summon this about the time the fog started coming into your town. As you are well aware, you and your friends could only summon your personas in the shadow's world, and three years ago, the team that saved the world then could only summon their persona's during the dark hour, an hour hidden from almost everyone else, where tartarus, the tower that was created for the coming of Nyx, would emerge, and the shadows would apear from. As you can see, it is neither the dark hour, nor are we in the world of shadows, yet here we see a persona." The blob smiled evily at Soji before going back inside Kae. "Clearly, you can see the issue the world is now facing." Kae said sadly, and Soji could only nod in agreement.

"We're here." The driver said suddenly, and the car stopped outside a huge office building, where two men in suits rushed over to open the doors. Kae looked at Soji and smiled. "Well, ya ready to meet the people who saved your life three years ago?"


	2. Chapter 2

Soji stepped out of the car and craned his neck back to get a full view of the Kirijo group's office building. It had been a long time indeed since he had seen a building of that size. Not since moving out to the country what seemed ages ago had Soji seen a building this size, and even when he had lived in the city before, building this size were rare.

"Come on, we're kinda on a tight time schedule." Kae said sheepishly, ushering Soji to the front door. "Mitsuru Kirijo was a little ticked off when i called her and told her to assemble the Old sees group without really giving a reason on my end, so i'm sure she'll be even less thrilled about me if we're late." Soji nodded and picked up the pace on his own.

As the two teens walked through the front door, two men in black suits intercepted them. "This way please." They said stoically, and led the two to an elevator. Riding up in silence, Soji gave Kae a nervious glance, and Kae just simply responded with a smile. The elevator's "ding" brought the two's gazes back forward as the doors opened.

Soji was amazed at the office room filled with people. Sitting around the table on tow large sofas, seven people turned and watched the two enter the room. A dog sleeping under the table perked up its ears and raised its head at the two eyeing them suspiciously. A young woman with long red hair started to open her mouth, but Kae began to talk before she could say anything. "Ah, here we are! The hero's of the world! On the far left, we have the lovely Yukari Takeba, followed by the sensitive, yet strong, Fuuka Yamagishi. To her side we have the boxing king, Akihiko Sanada! At the head of the table, miss rich girl herself, Mitsuru Kirijo! On her left, we have the "lively" Aigis, followed by the smartest middle schooler, Ken Amada. To his left we have the super star, Junpei Iori! Last but not least, we have the fierce guard dog, Koromaru!"

The people at the table looked at one another in confussion. "Mitsuru, you called me out of college for this?" Akihiko asked. "I swear, he sounded nothing like this on the phone, and he did hint at knowledge of the dark hour..." Mitsuru said. "Wait, you don't even know him?" Piped up Yukari. "It was a long drive from Okijima to get here, and I had to cancel my plans for the next fews days, and this is all i get?" Junpei smiled. "Hey don't be so down yuka-tan, at least we get the chance to see one another again."

"Huh, and I thought you were missing a specific member..." Kae said slyly, and the entire table stared at him in surprise. "Before you decide to kill me for that comment, allow me to introduce myself. You may call me Kae, the archivist." He bowed to the group. Soji could only stare in amazement with the rest of the group. "The archivist?" Fuuka asked. "Yes, the archivist. For good reason too." The black blob that Soji had seen early appeared from Kae, causeing the group at the table to stand in alarm. Koromaru barked and growled at the thing, fur bristling. "Is that a persona?" Ken asked. "It is not possible. There are no none records of people summoning personas outside of the dark hour." Aigis said in disbelief. "And yet, you see what is behind me clearly. Yes, that is my persona, and with his power, i can gaze into the past and view anything that has happened...well most things." The black blob vanished, yet the group still stared at Kae in shock. "You can see into the past?" Junpei asked in awe.

Kae sighed. "Look, i didn't get you all here to scare you or harm you. I came here to warn you." "Warn us?" Mitsuru asked. "Yes, warn you. I am not the only teenager who can awaken and us their persona outside of the dark hour. Ever since last december, there has been a gang of persona users forming in the back alleys of this city. Soon, i fear they will strike, and you guys are the only ones who can stop them. Just letting you guys know." Kae shrugged as if this news was nothing to him. "And why are we supposed to believe you?" Akihiko asked suddenly. "You just show up suddenly, saying you know everything about the past, show us a persona even though that's not possible, and now you're telling us that a gang of other persona users like you are going to attack the city, and you expect us to just go along with this?"

Kae cringed. "Oooo, i don't like how you slaughtered my words there, but in a nutshell, yes, i expect you to believe me. Did you guys know the world almost ended a second time?" "I don't believe that!' Yukari said angrily. "Why not?" "Because...he's watching over us! He won't let anything happen to us..." Yukari looked away down at the ground. Soji noted that strangly enough, Aigis did the same, and the rest of the ground exchanged awkward looks. "Well then, i guess the strange fog that enveloped that one town in the country didn't tip any of you off. I'm very dissapointed."

The group looked at him in surprise. "I heard about that" Ken said. "Me too," chimed in Fuuka. "The fog seemed bad for the people, and the whole town seemed like it was going crazy. Then, suddenly, on new year's day, the fog cleared up..." The members of SEES looked at one another in astonishment. "Yes, and this guy is the one who cleared up the fog." Kae pointed at Soji. "You cleared up the fog?" Mitsuru asked, and Soji nodded. "You had the power to do so?" Aigis asked, and again, Soji nodded.

Kae walked over to the table and struck a captain morgan pose. "He has seen the two few others have ever seen." The other's looked at each other in puzzlement. "You have all seen it once before too, aigis many more times then once..." The group stared at Kae in shock, then transfered their stares to Soji. "Now then, let's sit and chat about what to do about that gang hmmm?" Kae asked with a smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Kae scratched behind his head. "That's how we should proceed with dealing with this problem. Any questions?" The entire group looked at each in confusion. Soji was glad that he wasn't the only one confused by the information Kae had provided. "Yeah, i got a question. What the hell are you talking about?" Junpei asked.

Kae sighed. "Okay, i'll try and break this down in the simplest terms as possible. I found out, through looking at the past, that the twelve teenagers that i listed names for, awakened their persona's on the day Nyx came to earth three years ago, when the dark hour was expierenced by everyone. However, you guys are now the only one who remember the dark hour and what happened during it. Normally this would be alright, however, now that people can summon persona's any time of the day, if these kids accidentally awaken their persona's, they'll remember everything, including their idea together three years ago to take over the world. Their persona's are extremely powerful, so if the twelve got together again, it would be hard for you guys to take them out. That's why, we're going to eliminate them individually as quickly as possible."

"Eliminate?" Ken said in surprise. "We're going to kill them?" "I'll have no part in that." Akihiko said angrily. "No, we are not going to kill them. You need to force them to take a surpressant pill, and then lock them up and keep them on the pills."

"And if we do this, where do you suggest we lock them up?" Mitsuru inquired. Soji was wondering that as well, until he notice the girl called Aigis staring at him, unblinking. Pretending not to notice, Soji continued to listen to Kae.

"Don't worry about that, I have connections that can help us. Back to the plan. Though you can summon persona's in the real world now, it's quite a strain to do it, and you usually can't last long. It is easier however, to summon persona's at night, the closer to midnight the better, and it is easier to summon them on full moons." Soji raised his hand to ask a question. "It's because shadows orignally only appeared during the dark hour, an hour hidden between midnight and one minute after." Yukari said before Kae could. "Also, powerful shadows would always appear on full moons. But that was because..." Yukari trailed off.

"Yes, so that's the jist of it. What do you guys say?" Kae asked, eyeing the group expectantly. Everyone looked at one another questioningly, and then all stared at Soji. "and you want him to be our leader?" Junpei asked. "Yes. I know he'll never replace him, but he's been a leader before, and he did save the world you know." Kae pointed out.

Everyone looked at one another again. "I don't know..." Fuuka said. "What's the chance these twelve kids will awaken their persona's?" "I agree." Aigis interjected. "What proof do we have that you are telling the truth anyways?" "You don't have any." Kae said simplily. "However, when the first cases of apathy syndrome pop up again, will i get to laugh in your faces?"

The grouped looked at him in surprise. "Apathy syndrom? But that was cause by shadows attacking people." Yukari argued. "How will that come up again?" "Because persona's ARE shadows if you don't remember." Soji nodded in agreement. "It's your choice. I just wanted to give you guys a fighting chance."

The group looked at one another again. "Alright, we'll go by your plan." Mitsuru said. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Are you in on this too?" Kae asked Soji. Soji nodded. "Good. Now, get Soji's cell number so you can coordinate the operations." "You're not gonna give us your number?" Akihiko asked suspiciously. "Dude, i can see into the past. I'll contact YOU when you guys need me. Till then, toodles!" With that, Kae turned around the exited into the elevator. as the doors closed behind him, the group looked at one another in silence. "Well, that was unexpected." Junpei finally said.

Mitsuru nodded. "So, Soji, give your cell phone number to the secratary on the bottom floor. She'll give it to me so we can call you when we need you. I'm sorry to make you feel like an outsider, and we do thank you for your help, but we need some time alone as a group to discuss things. I hope you can understand." Soji nodded and smiled gently at the group. "Thank you for understanding." Mitsuru said. "You look like a good guy." Akihiko chimed in. "I believe we'll have no difficulty getitng along." "I think so too." Yukari said. "Me too." Fuuka agreed. Koromaru barked happily. Soji smiled and got up to walk to the elevator. "Wait, I'll escprt him out and call him a cab." Aigis said suddenly, and walked with Soji to the elevator. Soji couldn't help but notice the weird way she walked, almost artifically. "Alright, we'll wait for you Aigis." Mitsuru said, and Aigis nodded. "Thank you."

The elevator came, and the two got in. The doors closed, and the elevator began it's desent. For a moment, the two stood in silence. Then, Aigis turned to Soji. "There is something i've been meaning to ask you, but...for some reason, i'm afraid to ask." Soji looked at Aigis in confusion. "I suppose Kae didn't tell you, so I will. I am not 100% fully organic." Aigis lowered one of the shoulders of her shirt down to her arm, and Soji gazed in amazement at the mechanical joint in place of where her shoulder should be. "Yet I am somehow operating with all of my systems offline, like i really am living." She smiled at Soji. "It's a long story." Her smile suddenly dissapeared. "But ever seen Kae dropped that line...about the two that only two of us have met multiple times. I have to know..." Aigis took in a deep breath. "Have you met the man with the long nose and his assistant in...the velvet room?" Soji gave Aigis a look of shock, and slowly nodded. "I thought as much..." Aigis said sadly, and hung her head. Soji was shocked again as he saw a tear rolling down her cheek.

"Why? Why did it happen to him?" Soji looked at her questioningly. "When i was summoned to the velvet room, I ended up becoming alive. When you were summoned to the velvet room, you gained the power to save the world, and here you stand." Aigis at this point was desperatly trying to hold in sobs as tears flowed down her cheeks. "Why did he have to die? Why was he forced to sacrifice his life? Why do we have the chance to life, while he had to give up his future? Why can't he be here now?" Aigis finally broke down into sobs.

Soji thought a moment, and softly whispered his answer into Aigis' ear. Aigis sniffled and gave a small laugh. "Yes, i know. He did have something he treasure more then his life. We saw him do it, so we all know." She quickly wiped away her tears and smiled at Soji. "I'm sorry about that. I haven't broken down like that in awhile." The elevator finally landed on the first floor. "Well, here you are." Aigis said cheerfully. Soji put his hand on her shoulder gently, smiled, and walked out of the elevator. "Are you sure you can handle calling a cab? I can do it for you." Aigis called from the elevator. Soji gave a wave of "thanks but no thanks" and walked to the secratary as the elevator's door's closed. After giving his number to the secratary, he walked outside and pulled out his phone to call his parents, when he noticed he had missed a lot of calls from the gang back in Inaba. Actually, his phone started ringing. It was Yosuke. Smiling to himself, Soji answered it. "Hello?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Dude, are you okay? Where are you? Are you hurt?" Yosuke asked through the phone quickly, his voice thick with fear. Soji told him that he was okay and asked him why he thought he wasn't okay. "Your parents called your uncle and said you hadn't show up at the train station, so he called us and asked if we knew anything. Everyone was desperately trying to call you, but you haven't been answering." As he finished his sentence, Soji got an alert that he was recieving a call from Chie, and he turned it into a three way call. "Hello? Are you there? Are you okay?" Chie's voice asked hurridly through the phone. "Chie? It's Yosuke. Yeah, he's fine." "Oh thank god, I was worried sick!" Just then, yet another person called Soji, this time it was Kanji.

Eventually, everyone was there, all on a conference call. Soji took the time to explain what had happened to him and everything he had learned. "Whoa, i could never imagine anything like that happening!" Yosuke said in awe. "Teddie, did you ever know anything about this dark hour or Nyx?"

"No, i've never heard of those things before." Came his reply. "All i ever did was spend time in my world before you guys suddenly showed up." "You sure ended up in a weird situation senpai." Kanji said. "I know you're working with those SEES guys, but are you sure you don't need any help?" "Of course he needs help!" Rise interjected. "Didn't you hear him raddle off that list of those twelve gang members? We should do everything we can to help him find them and if we need to, help him beat these guys." "Yeah, i don't care if those people in SEES saved the world three years ago." Yosuke said. "We only just beat that Izanami person, so we've summoned our persona's a lot more recent then them." "Yeah, but we've never summoned them in the real world." Yukiko said. "I don't even know where to start. I mean, in teddie's world, summoning my persona was second nature to me. It just came out when i wanted it to." "But now, according to this Kae, we can summon them in the real world, although it is difficult." Naoto pondered. "Also, didn't this Kae say that he had already called your parents and gave an excuse?"

Soji noted a young man stand a few feet from him and start hailing a cab as he explained to the group about Kae's personality. "Wow, sounds kinda looney." Kanji laughed. "Yes, but i don't think he was lying. He even proved that we can summon our persona's outside of Teddie's world." Naoto said. "So, what should we do?" Rise asked. "Well, i could look through the inn's records, see if i can find anyone who stayed here with those names..." Yukiko offered. "Oooo, good idea Yukiko! I'll go ask around town to see if anyone's heard of those names too." Chie said. "I could ask my mom if we've ever done orders for any of those people." Kanji said. "Yeah, and I could get in touch with some old connections and see what they can find." Rise offered. "Teddie and I will ask around Junes." Yosuke offered. "I'll see what i can dig up in case files." Naoto said. "While we're doing this, i believe it is inperitive that we practice summoning our persona's in the real world. Kae said it would be easier to do when it gets closer to midnight, and the moon is more full, correct? Then we should practice at night." The other's agreed.

"You want me to call your uncle to tell him you're okay?" Yukiko suddenly asked. "And your parents must be worried sick!" Soji thanked Yukiko for being willing to call his uncle for him while he called his parents. "Alright, I think it's time we got this show on the road!" Yosuke said enthusiastically. "What? We just suddenly learned about this, and you want to start doing things now?" Chie asked in amazement. "The sooner the better is the way i see it." Kanji said. "Yes, we must start working on this immediatly." Naoto agreed. "Now that we know you're okay, let's conference call again tomorrow after school and discuss this some more." The other's agreed, said their goodbyes to Soji, and hung up.

Soji was about to hang up as well, when he heard Naoto's voice across the line. "Senpai? Are you still there?" He told her he was. "Oh good. Look, i um...have a question to ask you." Naoto sounded flustered and Soji asked what was wrong. "Well nothing is wrong per say, but...Kanji...made me this adorable stuffed detective doll..." Soji could feel the heat of Naoto's blush through the phone. "...and i have no idea what to give him in return...do you have any suggestions by chance?"

The young man next to him started to get in the cab, but stopped suddenly and went wide-eyed as Soji told Naoto to give Kanji a kiss. "A kiss?!" Naoto blurted, shocked and embarrassed, and Soji couldn't help but laugh. "Senpai, this is serious!" Naoto said angrily, her voice sounding much more like a girls now that she had lost her calm. Soji said to get him some good fabric he could use to make more things. "Are you sure? You don't think her would get offended?" Naoto asked timidly.

Soji was about to respond, when his phone exploded in his hands. Looking around in shock, he saw the young man fully out of the cab, holding his head and smiling pyschotically. "I remember..." A dark, blueish shape started rising from his back. "I remember everything..." the shape took form into a four-armed, armor wearing humanoid thing. Soji looked around frantically, yet the people who were walking up and down the street didn't seem to notice anything. Soji looked in horror at the young man as he stood up and laughed maniacally. "I am one of the 12 princes of this land, and I have come to claim my kingdom!" the guy shouted, and both he and the persona behind him stared down at Soji with murderous intent.


	5. Chapter 5

Soji never thought he would ever be in this situation. It had not been one full day since he had left inaba, since Izanami had been destroyed, and since the fog had lifted in both worlds, and yet, here he was, running as fast as his legs could carry him, desperatly trying to find an abandoned lot or back alley or something where there were no people around. Yet he was on the main street of the city, crowds of people were there, and there was no way there was anything within five hundred yards that didn't have a person occupying space.

It wasn't that Soji didn't want people to see him summon a persona. Quite contrary, he wished he could figure out how to use his power here and now. The problem was the man chasing after him, and the persona from him throwing giant balls of flame at Soji as he ran. Ironically, Soji knew nobody else could see the persona above the man, and people were giving him weird looks as he rushed past, as though he was the bad guy, because he was being chased.

Their looks were quickly changed to screams of terror. While they could not see the persona trailing slightly behind the man, the huge balls of fire thrown the creature's four hands still affected the world normally, as shop windows were destroyed, parked cars exploded, and bits of the huge buildings that Soji ran past were tossed everywhere as huge scorch marks made sudden apperances and blasted bits of concrete over most of the pedestrians on the street.

"You cannot run from me puny human! I am a god among men! This land is mine!" The man shouted insanly as he chased after Soji. Through the screams of fear and cries of panic, as well as the crowds of people stampedeing in random directions, Soji managed to pick out a back alley on the opposite side of the street, not two hundred feet away. He was in luck. Taking a deep breath, Soji suddenly ran into traffic, just in time to miss a fire ball hit where he used to be standing and explode the pavement.

Soji's heart pounded loudly as he just managed to dodge the cars. Looking back, he stared in horror and the man's persona simply smashed the hoods of any cars about to hit him as he entered the road, cause the drivers to get knocked out and stopping traffic instantly. This was a little too much to ignore for the public, and as Soji took off running again, he heard a voice shout "Halt! Stay where you are! Hands where i can see them!"

Now at the entrence to the alley, Soji turned to look in horror as a lone cop stood in front of the man, gun pointed at him. "I don't know how you did that, but you've got to come with me now!" The cop said shakily. The young man stopped and pondered a moment, then smiled evily and gave Soji a nasty look. Before Soji could shout for him not to, the young man's persona grabbed the cop with all four arms and tore him apart, splattering the surronding bystanders with blood. Screams were cut short as the persona then waved it's arms through a few people, and the dropped to the ground, eyes suddenly blank, moaning and muttering to themselves. "You see? I am a god, and my time to rule and be worshipped is now at hand!" The young man called to Soji, and his persona conjured a giant ball of flame and hurled it at Soji.

The alley saved his life as the force of the blast knocked him into it, deflecting him from the heat and flame. Laying on his back, dazed, Soji could only look in fear as the silhouette of young man appeared in the entrence to the alley. "Oh, how rude of me. I haven't even introduced myself to my subject yet. I am Horokashii Ningen. You may call me 'your highness' with your last fews remaining breaths." Soji coughed and struggled to stand. "You are one of the few who can see my consort behind me here. That must mean you have some power of some kind, and the mean's you're dangerous." Horokashii looked at Soji coldly. "On that fateful night, three years ago...yes, yes i remember. Thirteen of us decided to rule the world with these newfound powers. The sky was this weird color of green, and many of these weird creatures came out of nowhere and attacked people. Yet the thirteen of us held them all off. That was when we knew we would become kings of this land."

Soji looked around, and grabbed a rusted pipe. He was desperatly searching his memory for some way he could summon his persona in the real world, but nothing came to him. Getting to his feet, he charged Horokashii, teeth gritted and bared. Horokashii mearly smirked, and his persona smashed Kanji away with one arm, knocking him clear across the alley into the brick wall, where he gasped and coughed up blood. "It seems you only have the power to see, not to use." Horokashii shook his head in dissapointment. "You're still just a highschooler too, huh? An old one maybe, but still full of potential, just like i was...such a shame that you must die." The persona behind Horokashii created another huge ball of flame. "And make no mistake, you will die. It is the will of a new god." The ball left Horokashii's persona, headed straight for Soji.

"_I can't do it. It should be impossible. Summon a persona in the real world? It's not gonna happen. Even Igor said that our contract was done. I'm sorry everyone. I know that this world is gonna go through hard times now. I know everyone is gonna go through hard times. Everyone, because i won't be around, will suffer. If i could only summon a persona! How can this guy, but not I? What's the true source of this guy's power? I need that source of power just like him, then i could summon a persona, and i'll be able to protect everyone...everyone_." All these thoughts raced through Soji's head ball of flame came closer, only a second away from causeing his death. "_Everyone...Yosuke and Chie, Yukiko and Kanji, Rise, Naoto, Teddie...Nanako, Uncle, everyone else...they need me. I need to protect this world from the rest of the guys like this one! The truth is everyone needs me again, and the truth is..._" Soji stared with determination at the giant ball of flame coming towards him. "_...I can't afford to die yet!_"

With a blast of blue flame, the giant ball of fire dissapated, and Horokashii stared in suprise and fear as Izanagi-no-okami rose from Soji, staring with disapproval at Horokashii and his persona. "S...so you can summon one too eh? Well it doesn't matter! You can't beat me! I'm a god!" Horokashii's person a charged forward at Soji, waving its four arms in a desperate attempt to hit Soji. The god-slayer simply smiled, and Izanagi-no-okami simply pierced the persona with his sword, causing it to dissapate back into Horokashii, and in turn causing him to scream in agony before collasping to the ground. Soji stared at him for a moment, before darkness overtook him as well, and he fell to the ground. As the light faded, Soji smiled at a blue butterfly flying near a trash can, it's beautiful blue illumination a comforting goodbye to the light, and then all went black.


	6. Chapter 6

When Soji opened his eyes, all he saw was darkness. It surronded him, it enveloped him, it suffocated him. He had no idea where he was, and the last thing he could remember was a feeling of overwhelming pain. Realizing his was laying down, Soji slowly got to his feet and looked around, trying to find anything that wasn't darkness. To his dismay, there was nothing. He couldn't even see what he was standing on. Oddly enough, he could see himself clearly. A twinge of fear hit him when he realized that he wasn't blind, but everything around him was black. The echoing silence was oppressive, and did not help his nerves at all. For a moment, Soji truly considered the idea that he was dead.

Then, a small light in the distance caught his eye. Soji ran as fast as he could towards it. He didn't care what the light was, anything was better then this darkness. However, as he grew near, his pace slowed, and came to a complete stop. The light was coming from a closed door, a door that was not connected to anything. Soji had seen this door plenty of times before. He would never forget the velvet room, nor the passageway to it. There was something slightly different about this door however. Fluttering around it was a blue butterfly that twinkled in the pale light eminating from the door.

Soji took a few more steps towards the door. Now he was really curious about where the hell he was. Yet as he reached the door and was about to enter, he felt someone grab him by the wrist and stop him. Turning around in surprise, Soji beheld a curious sight. A boy with blue hair about his age wearing a school uniform was the one holding him back. The symbol on the uniform seemed familiar, but Soji was in no state of mind to remember where he'd seen it.

The blue hair boy gave a tug on Soji's arm. Soji thought he was trying to pull him back into the darkness, and fiercely tugged back, but the boy's grip would not let go. Instead, the boy simply smiled, and pointed a Soji's chest. Soji looked down questioningly at his chest, and to his surpise, there was a bright light that he hadn't seen before. It was much more bright and much more pure then the velvet light that came from the door behind him. Soji nodded, and moved away from the velvet room and the fluttering butterfly. He didn't need the light from anything else but himself. The boy smiled with joy, nodded, and then softly touched the light in Soji's chest.

Soji awoke, gasping for air. "We've got a pulse!" came a voice to his right. A bright light was shining directly into his eyes, and he tried to light an arm to block it out, but he felt his arm restrained. "He's concious! We can't let him go into shock again!" Came the voice. A pulse? Shock? What was going on here?

His vision returned, and Soji saw that he was in a bed in what looked like a hospital room, surronded by doctors. "Heart rate is stablizing. I think he's okay now." The doctors and nurses gave a big sigh of relief. One wearing the Nametag "Stiles" put his hand on Soji's shoulder as the nurses started cleaning up the medical equipment surronding Soji's bed. "I don't know how or why your heart suddenly stopped beating, but boy are we lucky we could revive you." "Come on Stiles, there was no 'we'. That was all you man." "Oh? Let's see how far he would have gotten if i hadn't gotten everything prepared first! There is no 'we'. Humph!" A blonde nurse said annoyedly before exiting the room.

The two had a quick laugh before the door suddenly burst open. There was the entire gang, all seven of them desperatly trying to fit into the room at once. "Is he okay?" "Oh god, is he going to live?" "Is he alright?" "Don't let him die!" "Senpai, don't die on us!" "Sensei, are you okay?" "Does he need a kidney? I'll give him a kidney if i have to!" The group's voices were all mixed together and said at once, caused the two doctors to recoil. "Yes yes, he's okay now. Just be gentle with him. He's very tired, and his heart just started beating again." Stiles said, and left the room with the other doctor.

The group surronded Soji's bed. All of them had tear stains on their cheeks, some more apparent then others. "We were on our way to visit you after Mitsuru contacted us, and when we got to the bottom floor of the hospital, we heard those two doctors talk about you as the ran by, and I was so scared, I..." Rise burst into tears again. "Rise, cut it out, he's okay now." Kanji said, turning his face to try and hide the tears leaking from his eyes.

Soji couldn't help but smile. He hadn't been gone long from these guys, but it was still great to see them. "I'm glad to see you're okay." A voice said from the doorway. Everybody turned to look, and there was Mitsuru and the rest of the SEES squad behind her. "Who are you?" Yosuke asked. "She's Mitsuru Kirijo, now head of the Kirijo group after her father died of a strange illness." Naoto answered. Mitsuru nodded. "These people behind me are the SEES squad i told you all about." She shook her head. "But we can make proper introductions later. I suppose Soji told you all about the situation a few days ago?" The group nodded while Soji stared in shock. A few days ago? How long had he been asleep?

Mitsuru turned her attention to Soji. "Can you tell me exactly what happened after you left us?" "I suddenly sensed a persona somehow a couple minutes after you left, and then i sensed two personas." Fuuka informed him. "About that time, we also heard some huge commotion down on the street." Junpei added. "So spill the beans, what happened? What seemed to- Aigis, what are you doing?" Ken asked. Aigis was staring intently at teddie. "He's...dangerous..." she simply said, giving teddie a dark stare. The SEES squad flinched in shock and all stared at teddie intently while Soji and the rest of the gang looked at Aigis in confusion. "Teddie? Dangerous?" Rise started giggling. "Teddie wouldn't hurt a fly."

"He is a shadow..." Aigis said, and the SEES squad dropped their mouths open with shock. "A shadow!?" Yukari gasped. "But how? I mean...wait, does this mean?" Everyone's eyes on the SEES squad widdened with fear. Soji decided to take matters into his own hands, and raised his arms up suddenly, telling everyone to calm down, and that he would explain all that happened to him and his friends to the SEES squad. Everyone relaxed a little bit. "Are you sure you're in the condition to tell us?" Akihiko asked. Soji nodded. "Yes, i think it would be a good idea for us to exchange what happened to each of us when it comes to dealing with shadows and personas." Naoto added. "If our two groups are going to work together, we're going to have to know each other's backstory, in full detail. That way, each group can work off of the other's expierence." Everyone looked at everyone else and nodded. "You have a good point." Mitsuru noted. "Very well, I shall begin first."


End file.
